Injured By Ignorance [How to be an Original]
Wednesday. 5:12am
It’s dark in the bedroom.The faint light emitted by the display of a cell phone illuminates the inside of a small closet. A guy is fumbling around in a drawer with socks, apparently not finding what he needs.
He’s acting quietly, only two steps away from a bed. One side of the bed is still warm, the other side is still in use.
After rummaging around some more, they guy picks up a pair of socks and quietly leaves the room.
I’ve been running for a three weeks again, training to finish half a marathon in the autumn this year. Last Wednesday during my run I learned a couple of things. One of them is that improper socks increase the chance of blisters (ouch).
Over the past four runs I have increased both my distance and speed on every run:
- 3.5 km | 21:19 | 9.8 km/h
- 4.2 km | 25:30 | 9.9 km/h
- 5.0 km | 29:55 | 10.0 km/h
- 6.1 km | 35:28 | 10.3 km/h
That’s really encouraging, but I should look out for getting overly confident. As you can see in the increase in distance, well even that increasing. First 0.7 km more, then 0.8 km and even 1.1 km on the last run. At this pace, I’ll be running marathons in a matter of weeks! (yes, that’s overconfident)
During that run though, my body was giving me signals. My stamina was not a problem, but my right knee was protesting a little. I noticed a faint irritation, a muscle maybe. Somewhat later, I began to realize that I was developing a blister on one of my toes on my right foot. Hmm, the right side again.
This week I began reading a new book Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich: Spike’s Guide to Success
Later that day, my ankle started sending me messages as well. The right ankle. Right again…
Stop right there, Lodewijk! Your body is sending messages, stop and listen, it usually has something meaningful to tell you.
The knee and the ankle.
They show faint feelings of irritation. Nothing serious, will cure with some rest. The solution is to ease the schedule a bit. Don’t overdue it, is what they try to teach me.
All irritations on the right side.
This is a sign of improper technique I guess. I’m not dividing the strain evenly over all parts of my body. Something to focus on in the next run, maybe even find someone who can train me proper technique.
Blisters.
They tell me to use proper equipment. Not regular socks, but socks made for running. Not tennis shoes, but running shoes. Yeah, I knew this but ignored it anyway. Not smart…thank you blisters.
The messages are only warnings, no injuries…yet.
Warning that I may be pushing too hard. So besides getting the right attitude and right equipment, it’s also time to learn some more about training schedules for marathons. After all, I don’t want to get injured by ignorance.
Time to learn something from the people who did this before. Successfully.
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Yet another original post by How to be an Original.
Original post here: Lodewijk
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